Working Group 3 – Transitioning Institutional care to Family Based Care

Lena Dasgupta Basu

Program Manager, Child Protection, Children in Need Institute, Jharkhand

Lena Dasgupta Basu

Program Manager, Child Protection, Children in Need Institute, Jharkhand

Lena Dasgupta Basu: Lena is a dynamic development sector professional, leading the Child Protection Portfolio in Child in Need Institute (CINI) India. She has experience of working on child protection and safeguarding of child rights for 22 years. She did her Masters in Sociology from Calcutta University and worked with CSOs, implementing projects on Cross Border Trafficking, Child Marriage, Child Labour etc in rural and urban parts of West Bengal. She served as Senior Programme Coordinator in Childline India Foundation (CIF) for sixteen years and worked in different states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and entire North Eastern states of India. Facilitating dialogue with the Government and CSOs, to consolidate the private-public- partnership and to deliver the service to children in the field was her main role in childline. She is a visiting faculty of many training institutes like Central Detective Training School, MDSTI-Kanchrapara etc. She has experience of working (2002-2029) as Radio Jockey of FM Rainbow and later in Maitree (A channel of India-Bangladesh) of All India Radio Kolkata.

Vaidehi Subramani

Independent Consultant & Former Chairperson CWC, Delhi and Member JJB

Vaidehi Subramani

Independent Consultant & Former Chairperson CWC, Delhi and Member JJB

Vaidehi Subramani is a Social Work professional and child rights advocate with long-standing experience in child protection and juvenile justice. She has served as Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee and as a Social Member of the Juvenile Justice Board.

She has served as a Honory Director at Akshay Pratishthan, an ngo works for the Disability sector.

She is a certified POCSO Act trainer and regularly conducts training and awareness programmes for schools, NGOs, and government institutions on child rights and child protection laws. She is associated with several NGOs and serves on Internal Complaints Committees.

She continues to work closely with communities and institutions, guided by the principle of keeping the child first.

She is an Academic and Field Work Counselor at IGNOU, teaching Social Work to post graduate students on the weekends.

She is on the Board as Director with I Probono and Parwarish Care Foundation.

She is serving as an ICC Member with Government of India and Delhi Government and a couple of corporates.

Isaac Arulappan

Founder & Chief Functionary Officer – DKSHA, Chennai

Isaac Arulappan

Founder & Chief Functionary Officer – DKSHA, Chennai

Isaac Arulappan’s life is a testament to the power of "lived experience" transformed into a lifelong mission. Having spent sixteen formative years as an orphan under the care of the Montfort Brothers in Manajampatty, Tamil Nadu, Isaac didn’t just witness the hardships of institutional life—he lived them.

The deprivations and vulnerabilities of his youth became the crucible in which his purpose was forged: to ensure that no child has to navigate the world without the warmth of a family and the dignity of a home.

A Vision Born in a Small Hut

In 1993, Isaac turned his personal history into social action, founding the Deva Kirubai Social Help Association (DKSHA). What began as a humble initiative in a small hut caring for four orphaned children has evolved into a robust, community-centered movement.

Today, under Isaac’s leadership, DKSHA operates from a 5.5-acre campus with a sophisticated infrastructure, serving more than 300 children across 109 villages in 12 districts of Tamil Nadu.

Leadership & Impact

As the Secretary of the Society and Project Officer for Family Strengthening (FS) and Family-Based Alternative Care (F-BAC), Isaac provides the strategic vision for DKSHA’s primary pillars:

Family-Based Care: Transitioning children from institutional settings back into the nurturing environment of a family.

Community Strengthening: Empowering rural villages to prevent child abandonment and ensure long-term stability.

Administrative Excellence: Leading fundraising and human resources with a dual focus on professional accountability and compassionate care.

Recognition and Legacy

Isaac’s pioneering work in shifting the paradigm of childcare has earned him prestigious accolades, including:

The Donald M. Carter Service Award (Rotary eClub One, USA)

Vocational Service Award (Rotary eClub One, USA)

Excellence in Transitioning Care Recognition (Madras School of Social Work)

Advocacy Award for Family-Based Care (Miracle Foundation India)

While the awards validate his professional standing, Isaac’s true legacy is found in the hundreds of children who now grow up with a sense of belonging. His life story serves as a bridge, turning the pain of the past into a blueprint for a more hopeful, family-centered future for the children of Tamil Nadu.

Rashmi Taylor

Child Protection and Social Development

Rashmi Taylor

Child Protection and Social Development

Rashmi Taylor brings nearly eight years of experience in child protection and social development, with a clear focus on safeguarding children and supporting families to rebuild safety, dignity, and agency. Her work is rooted in rights-based practice, where children and caregivers are supported with clear information, encouraged to take small, meaningful responsibilities, and guided at a pace that respects their readiness and autonomy.

At Prerana, Rashmi has played a central role in child safeguarding and victim rehabilitation, leading interventions with children affected by sexual violence and exploitation. Her work spans case-linked rehabilitation, program oversight, and the implementation and monitoring of safeguarding systems, including the organization’s Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) framework. Across programs, she has strengthened practices that prioritize protection, informed decision-making, and long-term recovery for children and their families.

Rashmi holds a Postgraduate Programme degree in Development Management from the SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a specialization in Monitoring & Evaluation and CSR and a Master in Social Work degree. Her professional journey reflects a strong blend of field practice, program leadership, and systems strengthening. She has previously served as Senior Program Manager at Prerana’s Anti-Trafficking Center and as Manager – CSR at a Bank, where she led volunteering initiatives, school transformation programs, and child-focused community interventions.

Known for her thoughtful approach to safeguarding and accountability, Rashmi has contributed to publications on social work practice and COVID-19 response, bringing practitioner insight into complex child protection challenges. Currently, as a Grant Management and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Consultant at Prerana, she supports resource development and program quality, ensuring that safeguarding principles remain embedded across the organization’s work with children and families.

Dr. Kiran Modi

Founder & Managing Trustee, Udayan Care, Delhi

Dr. Kiran Modi

Founder & Managing Trustee, Udayan Care, Delhi

Dr. Kiran Modi is the Founder, Managing Trustee of Udayan Care. She founded Udayan Care, in Delhi, India, in 1994, with the vision of ‘Making Young Lives Shine’. With a doctorate in American Literature from IIT, she has been in the development sector for the last 31 years.

Besides running programmes for Alternative Care of ‘Out of Home Care’ children, education and livelihood programmes for disadvantaged girls and youth, she is keenly interested in raising standards of care in Alternative Care. She has been organizing seminars and conferences at national and international levels on FS and FBAC, conducting trainings in partnership with states, undertaking research on related topics, and publishing papers on Child & Youth Care. She is also the Founder Editor of an international bi-annual journal on Alternative Care: ‘Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond’ (ICEB). Besides her management responsibilities, she is a “Mentor Mother” to many children and youth, giving them personalized care and attention.

A recipient of many accolades and awards, Dr. Modi continues to strive towards ensuring the rights of the underprivileged children and youth with the same passion and zeal as when she started out more than three decades ago.

Sandhyaa Mishra

Senior Director – Government Partnerships & Strategic Alliances, Miracle Foundation India

Sandhyaa Mishra

Senior Director – Government Partnerships & Strategic Alliances, Miracle Foundation India

Sandhyaa Mishra is the Senior Director – Government Partnerships & Strategic Alliances at Miracle Foundation India, where she leads national and state-level engagement to strengthen child protection systems and advance family strengthening and family-based alternative care. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked extensively with children and youth in difficult circumstances, including children of prisoners, refugees, and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

She works closely with government departments, multilateral agencies, and civil society partners to translate policy intent into effective implementation. Her expertise spans system strengthening, transition frameworks, capacity building, and evidence-informed policy influence across multiple states in India.

She is a Steering Group Member and part of the Core Group of the India Alternative Care Network (IACN), actively contributing to sector collaboration, knowledge building, and the amplification of family strengthening and family-based alternative care in India.

Sandhyaa holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work, a Diploma in Labour Laws, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Rights. Known for bridging policy, programs, and partnerships, she combines strategic thinking with grounded field experience and remains deeply committed to systemic change that ensures every child grows up in a safe, nurturing family environment.

Geetarani Lourembam

Child Protection Consultant, UNICEF Maharashtra

Geetarani Lourembam

Child Protection Consultant, UNICEF Maharashtra

Geetarani Lourembam currently serves as the State Consultant for Family-Based Care with the Child Protection team at UNICEF Maharashtra. In this role, she provides strategic technical support to the government and partners to promote family and community-based care solutions for children.

Geeta holds a Master’s degree in Social Work with specialisation in Children and Families from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has had academic and field engagements with TISS, including contributions to an action project on child protection in Bihar and Telangana, and a

Maharashtra state-level assessment of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). Before joining UNICEF, she worked with Prerana, where she led large-scale case management initiatives to prevent family separation, enable reintegration and facilitated kinship care, foster care and aftercare processes. Her work also included extensive interventions with child victims of sexual abuse and trafficking. Geeta also played a key role in developing protocols and policy guidelines for family-based care, in partnership with government stakeholders and UNICEF. In addition to her programmatic contribution, Geeta has facilitated numerous training programs, district-level convergence meetings and multi-stakeholder forums aimed at strengthening the capacities of Child Welfare Committees, District Child Protection Units, NGOs/CSOs, and Child Care Institutions.

Sangita Bhatia

Senior Child Rights Professional, Delhi

Sangita Bhatia

Senior Child Rights Professional, Delhi

Sangita Bhatia is a senior child rights professional with over two decades of experience in child protection, care reform, education, refugee support, and gender-based violence. She has held leadership roles in renowned organisations such as Catholic Relief Services, ChildFund International, and Justice and Care, overseeing strategic planning, programme implementation, partnerships, and team management.

With extensive experience across Asia, Sangita has successfully led and supported programmes in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. Her expertise spans policy advocacy, system strengthening, and developing child protection frameworks in diverse socio-political contexts. She has collaborated with governments, international agencies, donors, and grassroots organisations to drive impactful change for vulnerable children and families.

Currently Sangita works as an independent consultant on strengthening care reform and child protection with a disability lens. She is also the convenor of the Inclusive Care Reform Advisory group (ICRAG).

Previously, Sangita served as Director of Care Reform for the USAID-supported Children and Families Together (CAFT) India project as a part of the Hope and Homes for Children team. She has also served as National Consultant for Alternative Care with UNICEF India, where she played a pivotal role in strengthening family-based alternative care systems and advocating for national-level care reform. She has worked extensively with central and state governments, providing technical guidance on policy development, evidence generation, and strategic programme planning.

A dynamic and reliable leader with a strong commitment to professional integrity, Sangita excels in fostering partnerships, influencing policy, project management and driving systemic change to improve the lives of children.

Manoranjan Dash

Technical Associate, Changing the Way We Care initiative India

Manoranjan Dash

Technical Associate, Changing the Way We Care initiative India

Manoranjan is a development practitioner working for over two decades to catalyse and communicate social change process to foster equity and inclusion to impact the lives in scale. He is devoted to anchor the transformation of future generation through committed investment for the wellbeing of children. He has field experience in Child Protection, Disaster Response, Disability Inclusion, Local Self Governance and Community Resilience. He has been involved in CRS-India country program for 10 years and currently contributing to the space of child protection under the Changing the Way We Care initiative to promote preventive actions by government system to impact and scale Non-Institutional Care for children to grow in family environment. As a Technical Associate of Changing the Way We Care initiative in India, he is supporting to sub-national government child protection system for development and implementation of Care Reform strategy and plan and program implementation. His strategic contribution lies at curating and carving ideas and tools to be supportive for the implementation of country/state policy priorities.

Sanjana Rajendran

Project Associate with Catholic Relief Services, India

Sanjana Rajendran

Project Associate with Catholic Relief Services, India

Sanjana Rajendran is a Project Associate with Catholic Relief Services India, working with the faith engagement initiative of the Changing The Way We Care project.

Umesh Purohit

Executive Director, Youth Service Center, Odisha

Umesh Purohit

Executive Director, Youth Service Center, Odisha

Umesh Purohit has been in the development field for two decades and was recently Executive Director of Youth Service Center, an NGO in Odisha. He is one of the child rights professionals and is active in grassroots interventions. He led many networks and campaigns in Odisha like the campaign against child labour, the campaign against child hunger, and the Destination Unknown campaign for migrants and children on the move. In India, he is also in the core of various national networks in India. He is also active in the disability sector and focuses on inclusion and accessibility with advocacy for disability rights.

iacnsecretariat@iacn.in

Working Group 3 – Transitioning Institutional care to Family Based Care

Working Group 3 – Transitioning Institutional care to Family Based Care

Lena Dasgupta Basu

Vaidehi Subramani

Isaac Arulappan

Rashmi Taylor

Dr. Kiran Modi

Sandhyaa Mishra

Geetarani Lourembam

Sangita Bhatia

Manoranjan Dash

Sanjana Rajendran

Umesh Purohit

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National Coordinator, India Alternative Care Network (IACN) Secretariat, C/o Butterflies 163/4, Pradhan Wali Gali, Village Jaunapur, New Delhi - 110047

iacnsecretariat@iacn.in